bad day at home

[can whlvr 994]

well its been a terrible 2012,very,very slow for work,got people calling me that i havnt heard from in years lokking too,so today im out side and come in and i can smell deisel fuel,i thought well i just got filled up yesterday(900.00 freakin dollars and maybe some came out of the gauge,they arnt dead tight,i see a puddle on the floor,maybe 3-4 gallons,ya its deisel fuel,so i think at first i am going to call the fuel company and have someones head,well i look and see a drip coming from the bottom of the tank,ya its rotted through,so i get a pan under and go call my fuel company,they cant sell me a tank,only install them,1800.00 f-----g dollars,holy cow,thats a pile of cash right now,so i drained the tank so it doesnt blow a hole and then i have real troubles,i have plastic 45 gallon drums lucky for me,but 190 gallons took me 4 hours to do,i cant afford a transfer pump and noone rents them around here,so i know a guy who is licensed and hes gonna get ma a price on a tank,but today you have to go double wall so they arent cheap,probally still gonna cost me 1500.00 and thats installing it myself and the boiler guy will inspect

[DoctorHfuhruhurr 137]

Look at it this way. At least it didn't let loose and leak everywhere. That would have been a nightmare compared to what you're doing now. You'd be out the cost of the oil plus clean up costs which would probably be a fortune.

May I ask the age of the tank if you know? Is it an outdoor or indoor tank? I've never seen one that rusted through before but I haven't seen that many tanks either.

[jusjeepn 59]

^{With your title, I was thinking "Is better than a good day at work"}

[Sparky-(Admin) 23,129]

Bummer Don. Hopefully your "buddy" can get you a better price. But on the bright side 190 gallons of diesel spilled woulda been a bigger expence to clean up right.

Mike...........

[can whlvr 994]

ya i guess im somewhat lucky,its inside and they all leak sooner or later,this ones 10 yeras old and thats all were allowed to use them for nowadays

[AMC RULES 37,196]

Thanks for the heads up Don, better go put some eyeballs on mine now.

I hate to even think about cleaning up 275 gallons of diesel out of the basement.

How'd you transfer the fuel...siphon? :eusa-doh:

[64s 83]

It sucks when something like that goes wrong, but like everyone else said, it could have really gone wrong! You're lucky you caught it when you did.

I just helped a client with the same problem. I had some plastic 55 galoon drums, went to Harbor Freight and bought a pump, and pumped the tank into the barrels. It wasn't a fast procedure (about 12 min per barrel), but pretty clean and effecient. Luckily we don't have the same codes as Canada with the double wall, so the costs are more reasonable. BTW, I have family in Germany and we were talking abou this the last itme I was there. They have to put in double wall plastic tanks and then surround the tanks with either 3 or 3.5 foot concrete walls to contain the fuel it the tank ruptures. A big cost/job, but they won't have the mess if the tank does let go. I gotta go now and check my tank.

[Docwheelhorse 2,740]

Wow... that was close.... diesel smell never goes away and if you soaked the whole cement floor it would of been real bad. Wow again.... your only getting 10 years out of a tank????? Mine is 16 years old and looks fine and most of the time 25+ is OK.... they do rot out but real slow on the indoor ones. Sparkys fathers let go if I remember but that one was from the 60's or 70's.....

Tony

[can whlvr 994]

i just let gravity fill buckets then pour it into plastic barrels,and if a tank is outside they want it with a barrier that can hold as much as the tank icase of rupture,my tank looks like new,my burner guy coulnt beleive it when i called him,i think i got a friday tank,my last one was probally 25 years old,some insurance companies up here wont insure you if you have oil,so whats a country guy supposed to do,propane?,i like oil because if im low and have no money i can get fuel in cans,i have 6 jerry cans so that can get me by,the propane guys wont come for much less than half a tank,and then i would have to replace my furnace,got the tank out today,all the clean up but the smell is still in the house,it will take time

[zieg72 209]

I can barely remember the oil furnace we had growing up. I don't remember when my dad went to a gas forced air unit in our house but I was a little tyke for sure. I got away from Propane cause of cost, I have a heat pump with electric backup. Before the electric rates went up it was a great savings switching but our bills now are anywhere from 1-200 less than when we had propane. Natural Gas is just a mile away....

[tunahead72 2,543]

Don,

Sorry to hear about all this. This stuff never happens at a good time, but I think you know by now it could have been a lot worse. Be thankful you caught it in time, deal with it the best way you know how, and keep moving forward, you'll get through it and be in better shape when it's all over.

And make a mental note of who helps you out, and keep them close.

By the way, I don't know much about spills like this, but I wonder if you can use cat litter or something else to help get rid of the smell?

Good luck!

[Docwheelhorse 2,740]

My father taught me to take dry cement mix and spread it on the cement and then take a 2x4 on edge and grind it into the oil stain whether its diesel, gear lube or whatever stinky petroleum product. He learned this in the army and it works..... Trust me I had to clean his garage floor more than once using this method after working on my cars in his garage. It cleared up some raunchy 20 year old 80/90 positraction gear lube smell after I spilled the drained contents out of my cars rearend.

Tony

[refracman 167]

Wow only 10yrs? When I converted from oil in 1999 it was still the original tank from 54.

[WHEEL HORSE BILL 7]

Wow that s#&ks don I had water damage in the basement and that s#&ked I can't even imagine diesel fuel. All a have to say is thank god for natural gas :bow-blue:

[Hydro 131]

Don be careful with that odor. It can make your family sick. Most insurance policies would cover the resultant damage from the oil spill but not the tank itself. I recently dealt with a claim like yours and we had to cut out the cement floor and excavate the soil underneath. I do have access to the ingredients for a concrete poultice which will draw a lot of the oil out of the the concrete, this will help reduce the odor in your home. Send me a pm if you want it.

[6wheeler 669]

Don, I got a trick for you if you haven't replaced the tank yet. I did this on my outside diesel fuel tractor tank. Since you got it out, turn it upside down and clean the outside with solvent and then hot soapy water. Take as much of the paint off as possible. I used a wire wheel grinder. Put J-B weld on the whole bottom of the tank (I know , it takes alot) and, up the sides a bit. After it cures, Put fiberglass over it and up the sides of the tank about 10" inches. Once the fiberglass and resin hardens, it will never rot out again. It sort of makes a permanent "new" bottom on your tank. This "trick" works great on gasoline tanks too. I did the same thing on my suburban. And, 2 years later still no leaks.

[can whlvr 994]

thanhs for the tip 6 wheeler,i allready put a new tank in,i dont want to go through that bull ---t again,ive had to "clean" the florr quite a a few times,the smell is almost gone but not quite,i thought of this as i have a large roll of fiber glass left over from my boat rebuilding days,but if it leaked real bad again and i needed insurance help i dont think they would like to see a fix like that,but i almost did reweld it,it leaked at the spot where the weld starts and ends,bit the bullet and put a new one in and hopefully ill get 20 years from it,i bought the last one new but it was in the oil company,s storage way in the back for 3 years,its a 1999 tank but i bought it in 2003 new,got only 10 years,last one was around 30 years old ,thats my luck and thats why i put a new one in,plus the ole lady was on my back to do it right,if i was a batchelor i might have jerry rigged it

[rexman72 210]

the new tank should be double lined which is agood thing